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DISCOURSE, 



OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH 



OP 



IHON. DANIEL WEBSTER, I 



PREACHED IN 



iNEWBURYPORT, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 81, 1852. 




K-td; 




BY REV. W. W. EELLS, 

TASTOH OF THE »ECO>D PRESBTTKlilAN CH|!KCM. 







NEWBURYPORT: 

MOSES H SARGENT, PUBLISHER. 

1852. 






^^^^^"^JS. D. taiKEJV, PRINTER, No, 19 St«t« Street, Nc« bnvyport. 



DISCOURSE, 



OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH 



OF 



HON. DANIEL WEBSTER, 



PREACHED IN 



NEWBURYPOET, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1852. 




BY REV. w/w/eELLS, 

rASTOR OF THli SECOm) FEESB¥TKIaA^' CliUKCM. 



KKWBURYPORT: 
MOSES II. SAiJGENT, FUBLISHKK, 






NEWBUEYPORT: 

E. D. GREEN, PRINTER, 

No. 19 State Street. 



7 






Neivluryijortj Nov. 15, 1852. 
Rev. Wm. W. Eells, 

Dear Sir — The undersigned would respectfully so- 
licit, for publication,a copy of your recent Sermon, occa- 
sioned by the death of Hon. Daniel Webster. 
Very truly, your obedient servants, 

W. B. Banister, 
Henry Frothingham, 
Parker Roberts, 
Amos Tappan, 
Isaac H. Boaedman, 
Stephen W, Marston. 
j\IosES Hale, 
P. K. Hills, 
R. E. Mosely. 



To Messrs W. B. Banister, Henry Frothingham, and 

others, 

Gentlemen, — I have received your note, requesting 

a copy of my Sermon, in reference to the death of Hon. 
Daniel Webster, for publication. Thanking you for the 
compliment, which I feel belongs more to the subject 
than to myself, I cheerfully yield to your wish, and 
place the Sermon at your disposal. 

Very Respectfully Yours, 

W. W. Eells. 
Neivhuryvort, Nov. 18, 1852. 



Judges II, 8, 9, 10. — And Joshua the son of Nun, 
the servant of the lord, died, being a hundred 

AND TEN YEARS OLD. AnD THEY BURIED HIM IN THE 
BORDERS OF HIS INHERITANCE IN TiMNATH-HERES, IN 
THE MOUNT OF EpHRAIM, ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE 

HILL Gaash. And also all that generation 

WERE GATHERED UNTO THEIR FATHERS: AND THERE 
AROSE ANOTHER GENERATION AFTER THEM, WHICH 
KNEW NOT THE LORD, NOR YET THE WORKS WHICH HE 
HAD DONE FOR ISRAEL. 

Death claims all men as its lawful captives. 
Neither station, nor honor, nor influence, nor 
usefulness, not even in the church of God, confer 
any exemption from his inexorable demands. 
With equal foot he treads alike the halls of Kings 
and the cottages of the poor. The mighty 
and the lowly bow down together before his 
sway. The claims of the family — the apparent 
welfare of the church— nor the weal of empires, 
can offer any plea to stay his uplifted hand, or 
hold back the stroke, when God, the mighty 
Creator, speaks the word, commanding this dust 
back to its kindred dust. The sad record of 
every man, at the end of all his greatness, and all 



6 

Iiis power, and all his grandeur, is "and he died." 
However much the Lord may have used his in- 
strumentality for good in church or state — how- 
ever important, nay, indispensable in human view, 
that instrumentality may seem, yet in his own 
time God sends the messenger, and " the silver 
cord is loosed and the golden bowl is broken ; — 
the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the 
wheel is broken at the cistern." 

In the midst of his years, and in the glory of 
his priesthood, Aaron must ascend Mount Hor, 
and putting off his robes of office, give up his 
honors to another, and lie down and die there in 
the sight of all Israel. Though the eye, that had 
looked on the burning bush, and had seen the 
glory of God in the Mount, was not yet dim, nor 
the vigor of his body, nor the strength of his mind 
at all abated, yet Moses, the servant of God, 
faithful in all his house — the ever calm, mild, 
prudent, loving, King of Israel must go up into 
Mount Nebo, and die there, by the word of God, 
and be buried, when most of all, Israel needed his 
guidance. And now again, when Joshua has 
brought the people over Jordan, and has given 
them possession in part of the land of promise ; 
— just in the very year that he is so far settled 
as to fulfil the dying request of his great ancestor 
Joseph, and bring his bones to Shechem to lay 
them there to sleep till the morning of the resur- 
rection, he too must lie down to die. His funeral 
sermon over the remains of Joseph is his own 
farewell discourse. All his great merits as the 



leader of Israel — his faithlul walking in the foot- 
steps of his.predecessor Moses— all the need which 
yet remained to Israel that his eye should w^atch 
over them, and his pious wisdom guide them, 
and his word of authority restrain them, all these 
kept not back the stroke of death. This faithlul 
servant of the Lord died. And mourning Israel 
followed him to his quiet grave in the border of 
his own inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the 
Mount of Ephraim. Eleazer, the Hi^-h Priest, 
the son of Aaron, is taken away also the same 
year, and goes to sleep with the fathers. And 
one by one, all that generation, who had seen the 
glories of the Lord in the \^ilderness, were gath- 
ered unto their fathers ; and there arose another 
generation after them, entering into their labors, 
and enjoying all their blessings, but who knew 
not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had 
done for Israel. 

This peculiar position of Joshua gives a mourn- 
ful prominence to his loss to Israel, beyond even 
the splendid and sterling qualities of the man 
himself. He was the last survivor of those who 
had come out of Egypt at full age. He and the 
elders that were with him, who soon followed 
him to the grave, formed the connecting link be- 
tween the first times of Israel as a nation, and 
their present establishment in the goodly land of 
promise. Their eyes had seen all the wondrous 
goodness of God in the wilderness. They had 
been schooled in the law of the Lord, and in the 
principles of righteousness, under the teachings 



8 

of Moses. Tliey knew the terrors of the Lord, 
as well as his mercy. And they had seen also 
how much their prosperity rested upon the favor 
of God, and a strict obedience to his commands. 
With power, therefore, and out of the convictions 
of their own hearts, they could instruct and lead 
the people in those ways, upon which the blessing 
of God had rested at first: which alone could se- 
cure the enjoyment of that blessing in time to 
come. And so Israel served the Lord and was 
prospered all their days. But alter them, of 
necessity, there could come none like them. 
Those to whom they had handed the torch of 
life, and the reins of government, had only the 
hearing of the ear for all these works of God. 
And amidst the multitude of the gifts they forgot 
the giver. The very abundance of their blessings 
shut out God from their view. And the children 
of those, whom God, in his abounding mercy, 
had deUvered from Egyptian bondage, and had 
led through the Red Sea, and by the Vv^ay 
of the waste howling wilderness, and over Jordan, 
— to v/hom he had spoken in Sinai, and before 
whom he drave out all the inhabitants of the 
land, giving them a goodly inheritance — even 
these lapsed into ignorance of their God, They 
worshipped Baalim, and provoked the Lord Je- 
hovah, until he delivered them into the hands of 
the spoiler, and sold them to their enemies round 
about, so that they could not stand before their 
enemies. 

I have chosen this subject for our present medi- 



tations, and have gone into this detail because of 
its analogy with our present circumstances as a 
nation, and as affording a suitable and profitable 
subject to direct our thoughts, when we, with all 
the people of this land, stand in awe before the 
Sovereign God, and are called by the, voice of his 
providence to consider our ways and be wise. It 
is not often that I turn aside from the direct words 
of faith and repentance; but when the Lord is thus 
manifestly smiting us, striking down the tall ce- 
dars of Lebanon in the midst of their glory, that 
we may sit no more under their shadow, nor re- 
joice in their protection, it becomes us to hear 
the rod, and who hath appointed it. 

If the fathers of the Revolution, whom God 
raised up in our weakness, and upon whom he 
laid the burden of our low estate, were to us as 
Moses and Aaron, under his protecting care, to 
lead us to the borders of the promised land, then 
indeed the great lights that have lately been ex- 
tinguished, and have gone down forever beneath 
our horizon, were our Joshuas. In the spirit of 
the fathers, they have gone forward in their steps, 
and have established us in the full possession of 
the blessings designed for us of Heaven. They 
have walked before us, having seen the works of 
God in former times. And by the good hand of 
the Lord, in wisdom and in might they have 
guided us in the way of prosperity. Wisely have 
we confided in them, and leaned upon them, and 
followed them. Accordiuii; to the measure which 



10 

God bountifully gave to them, have they dispen- 
sed to us, writing their own character for good 
upon the people. And now they are all gone. 
The last grave has closed upon the mightiest of 
them all — our own loved, cherished, honored, 
revered, lamented Webster ! 

How often, in the hour of our need, has the 
finger of the nation pointed to him; and its voice, 
with a single sound, called upon him; and its heart 
relied upon him with security ! How often has 
the tumultous pulse of this people been quieted 
and calmed by the clear and mighty words of his 
wisdom and his prudence ! How often, by the 
blessing of our God, has he quelled intestine com- 
motions, and repelled foreign aggressions ;--sooth- 
ing the waters of strife at home, saying to the 
angry contenders, "Be at peace, for are ye not 
brethren ?" and shedding an honor and a dignity 
upon us, in the eyes of the nations, by his upright, 
manly, magnanimous conduct of our relations 
abroad ! How was the heart of the people con- 
firmed in hope, and how were their fears hushed, 
even in regard to the most important matter, 
when it was committed to his guidance ! When 
he set up his standard, in the hour of darkness, 
good men of all parties rallied around it. For 
they knew that it was a standard of justice and 
of truth — of constitutional right — of equal regard 
for the well being of all. When he spake on the 
great questions of the rights and destinies of na- 
tions, it was as some Judge giving sentence from 
a high court of appeals, beyond which there was 



11 

no recourse. And his words are the richest 
treasures of libert}' and right, and philosophic, 
practical wisdom. With a heart ever alive to the 
true interests of this nation, and throbbing ever 
in unison with its true sympathies, he gave to 
them a dignity of expression and of aim, that el- 
evated while it encouraged, — which taught to 
look upward, as well as to look forward. 

Who can calculate the influence of such a man, 
at such a time, upon such a people ? Such a 
man ! — at least, the first among his equals ; — of in- 
tellect capable of grasping all subjects, — revelling 
with delight in the beautiful and the great, — soar- 
ing on the wings of imagination to the highest 
spheres, and condescending to the minutest details 
of the homely and the useful — treasuring up the 
recorded learning of all time, and yet turning all 
into daily practice in this every day working world. 
An eminendy learned man, and yet the embodi- 
ment of plain, practical, common sense. With 
mighty power of thought — with sound judgment 
to regulate the decisions of intellect, with unsur- 
passed power of communicating his thoughts to 
others, — of compelling other minds to follow in 
the train of his reasonings, to come to his con- 
clusions ; — with mighty power to cause all hearts 
to throb in sympathy with his own noble heart. 
Thus was he a born leader of men ; such an one 
as the old heathen would have deified and wor- 
shipped as a second Jupiter. 

And God gave us such a man at a peculiar 
time in our history. His work was to strengthen 



12 

the institutions of the fathers — to build up that of 
which they had laid the foundation. It is one 
thing to break away from old associations — to set 
up a new political household, and to start upon a 
new course. And it is another to guide the vessel 
of state on this untried course, — to provide for 
unforseen emergencies, — to avoid the dangers of 
an unknown channel, and b}^ a timely observation 
to provide a chart for the use of coming times. 
There were many things in the working of the 
machinery, set in operation by our fathers, that 
they could not forsee, — for which it was not their 
calling to provide. They must do their duty in 
their day and generation, and devoutly trust God 
to raise up and qualify others for these coming 
exigencies, when they should arrive. And this 
succeeding work is no less important than that 
w^hich went before. Joshua is as indispensable, 
in the purposes of God towards Israel, as was 
Moses. 

To this work was he, whom we now mourn, 
appointed of our God. I will not at all disparage 
his illustrious compeers and fellow patriots, who 
labored Aviih him, and w^ho are mostly gone before 
him. Nor will I dwell upon the various occasions 
upon which he has stood for the constitution, and 
the whole country, when endangered by factious 
men, both South and North ; and w'hen he has 
raised his voice for our right and honor as a nation, 
as called in question by other peoples. These 
things are for other places. They are parts of our 
history. The record of his life is the history of 



13 

this nation,as it has increased in vigor and strengtli; 
— as if has arisen in compact firmness to the 
power of manhood at home ; — as it has burst 
forth in full orbed splendor upon the nations 
— a terror to all tyrants — a hope and a joy 
to all the oppressed. In this forming time, when 
our national character was slowly moulding, and 
we were gaining a name and a station among 
the kingdoms of the earth, these men, whom 
God sent us, and of them all, none more than he, 
have labored to mould that character aright at 
home, and to exalt our name and honor abroad. 
If there be aught of good and of stability in our 
institutions at home, has not his power at some 
time been exerted, and his voice raised in their 
defence, or in the promotion of their wise and 
worthy ends ? If there be aught of which we 
may be proud in view of other lands, this comes 
up to us, crowned with the fragrant memory of 
his name. Yea, is it not true, that we can call to 
mind some occasions, when we were compelled 
to say, that, under God, were it not for these 
men, not to say this man, with whose power and 
wisdom God has blessed us, since it was in his 
heart to do us good, we should have lost all our 
blessings at home, and have attained to ignomi- 
ny abroad 1 But God, in his goodness, sent his 
Joshuas to lead us ; and we will hold the instru- 
ments in honor, while we look above them and 
acknowledge his hand and bless his holy name. 
And again, upon what a people has this influ- 
ence been exerted ! There is first, the character 



14 

of the people, as susceptible of impressions be- 
yond any other nation of earth. Here the prescript 
tion of prejudice, of authority, and of old habit 
has but little force. Everything must stand upon 
its own reasonableness, or that which seems to be 
such. Every usage and every thought must 
submit to be questioned, and that most rigorous- 
ly. The mass of old opinions is rudely tossed 
away. And while we were as a people gathering 
a new store for ourselves, and vt^hile the multi- 
tude, as ever, were ready to rush forward too 
hastily, God sent us one, linked by the chain of 
sympathy to every American breast, who was 
enriched with all old wisdom, and who had the 
power and the will to digest it all, and eliminate 
therefrom those eternal elements of truth, which 
are ever new. To him, the people have given 
ear. And wisely has he set the current to the 
right channels, and in the way that leads to firm 

and stable greatness. 

And then, there is the destiny of this people, 

We are destined to be the greatest blessing or 
the greatest curse of all the nations. The feeble 
one has already become a mighty nation. But 
what arithmetic can compute the future, when 
from ocean to ocean, all this fair land shall be 
crowded with hundreds of millions of free inhabi- 
itants, with all that unwearied energy and un- 
daunted zeal, which is the offspring of our free 
institutions, and our open bible, and Protestant 
faith ? The mind shrinks back, wearied with 
the thought. But this is the epitome of it all ; — 



15 

the world will be what we make it. — The whole 
habitable globe will be influenced by our iclgas, 
and formed by onr opinions. And he, that has 
laid his plastic hand upon the head of this nation 
in its infancy, has sent down his transforming 
power through all these masses — over all these 
hills — through all these fair valleys — yea, upon 
every mountain top, and into every secluded 
glen of all this globe. 

When my mind contemplates this vast future, 
when the shadowy troops of the millions yet to 
be, pass before me, and I know, that their tempo- 
ral well beinof is connected with that enlightened 
liberty which we enjoy, and their eternal welfare 
depends upon an unsealed Bible, and an intelli- 
gent faith ; I devoutly thank God for the great 
and illustrious men, whom he has made the 
nursing fathers of this infant nation ; — I devout- 
ly thank God for these whom he has given as 
the guides of her youth : — and especially do I 
thank God for him, who on the 24th of October 
ceased to be mortal : who in all ways sought to 
inculcate a deep reverence for God and for his 
holy word. 

We are too near the hills to see their lofty 
tops, and to behold how high they pierce into 
the clouds. We see too much of the ruo-cred 
inequality, that marks their surface— the moral 
blots and deformities, that everywhere show the 
stain of sin upon our poor fallen nature. But 
the time is coming when it will be said of these 
times, "there w'ere giants in those days." The 



16 

names, that we have heard bandied about bj 
siii/ill politicians and narrow minded fanatics, and 
aspirants to power, will be pronounced with 
honor beyond all Greek or Roman fame. These 
were the formers of the destinies of nations. 
These the men, that spake words of power, w^hich 
will thrill through every thoughtful heart, so 
long as liberty and justice and right have a name 
on earth, or a home in the humblest bosom. 

They have gone ! they are all passed away. 
Oiu- Moses and Aaron, the founders of our Re- 
public — the leaders of the olden time of oiu* his- 
tory in the wilderness, have long since slept with 
their fathers. And our Joshuas are also gath- 
ered unto them. And he that w^as greatest of 
them, rests quietly in that newly made grave ; to 
wake again, only when the heavens shall be no 
more. There lies that honored frame, which 
moved about but yesterday.as a king among men; 
now as helpless as the infant of days by its side. 

Come ye sons of mortality, and behold the 
end of earth. The humblest and the most il- 
lustrious meet together there. There, all dis- 
tinctions cease. There, all mortal honors end, 
What now is the greatness of earth ? — what 
now its dignities 1 — its high stations 1 — its ap- 
plause? There they lie, beyond the voice of 
men, each in the borders of his inheritance, 
those men of might, whose least spoken word, 
a short time ago, was a word of powder to every 
hamlet on this vast continent. Their might 
could not save them. Their high intellectual 



17 

endowments could not save them. Their plans and 
purposes could not save them. The interests of 
their country could not stay the hand of the des- 
troyer. They must go when God calls, and leave 
all things, even those which they best could ac- 
complish, in the hands of others. Learn, frail 
man, thy mortality. Learn that sin has brought 
death upon all. Learn that naught but that which 
is washed in atonmg blood, which is acceptable to 
God through Christ Jesus, and is made to par- 
take of his blessedness, will survive the grave in 
honor, and appear in glory at the last day. 

But another voice comes up to us from their 
dying beds. Faults had these men ; — who has 
not ? — faults blazoned with a trumpet tongue 
throughout the land: — faults which all could 
see, though they could not see that power of 
an early instructed conscience, which was in 
them, working ever, and calling them into judg- 
ment before the mighty truths of revealed religi- 
on, which they had learned in childhood, and 
which they had never ceased outwardly to re- 
spect. 

And God, in his abounding mercy towards 
them, and in his abounding mercy towards 
us, as a nation, that whatever of evil was in their 
influence might be neutrahsed; and he be honored 
also, in the honor which he bestowed upon them, 
—in their latter days inchned the thoughts of their 
hearts towards himself. Calhoun, Clay, Web- 
ster, the illustrious trio of the second period 
of our history, aud Andrew Jackson, a man of 



18 

might, "howbeit he attained not unto the first 
three," all turned themselves, as their day wore^ 
unto the evening, and yet ere darkness had fallen 
upon their powers, unto the light of the sun of{ 
righteousness. They brought all their honors to 
the feet of the crucified Redeemer, and casting ; 
them all away, they presented themselves as sin- 
ners, and without merit, to a merciful God, seek- 
ing forgiveness through the atoning blood of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. O, that wherever their influ- 
ence goes, this testimony to the power, and the 
necessity of revealed rehgion, — of an interest by 
faith in the blood of Christ, — of a washing of re- 
generation, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, 
may go with it. This is the brightest part of all 
their history, and that which now they remember 
with the most pleasure ; which now they would 
wish published the most loudly. The great and 
the humble alike need the righteousness of the Re- 
deemer, in which to stand before our holy Judge. 

Now, shall our history be that of Israel after the 
death of Joshua ? The affairs of this nation will 
fall into new hands, and those of a new genera- 
tion. Those, in whom we confided, shall help us 
no more. But our God is still above us. He 
who sent Joshua to follow Moses, can yet raise 
up other servants to guide us in blessing. But 
we must seek to him. We must honor him. We 
must preserve his word of truth and his ordinan- 
ces with jealous care. 

O, let us be mindful, with gratitude, of the 
wonders that he has wrought in former time. 
And let us wait upon him, and put our trust in 
him for the future. And then the sun of our 
prosperity will ever stand still in mid heavens, 
until it is lost in the splendor an eternal day. 



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